I send most things to Alamy. If they don't take it then I'll send it to DT. My editorial sales on both sites are about even.

Do you mean in terms of dls, $$$ or both?

Quote from: sharpshot on December 13, 2010, 14:08

I will stick with alamy for editorial.  It doesn't seem to of taken off with the micros and I wonder why it has taken so many years for istock to have editorial?  As they aren't likely to sell in the same volume as non-editorial, it seems like a waste of time with low microstock prices under 20% commission.

I'd agree. Most editorial shots are going to be low-volume sellers more suited to RM prices.

I agree in general. But RM prices are coming down rapidly, e.g. newspapers and educational publications, and iStock has a higher reach, according to Alexa:

I'll be very interesting to see what happens. But I'm hopeless at making decisions!

Editorial by definition doesn't need a release. Editorial is "newsworthy" images. IS is the only site that requires an MR for editorial images be released. Any MR that IS accepts now should work for the editorial images.

I'd hope they'd provide one which is very specific for editorial only. (I do understand it's only for non-group images of minors, so will only apply to a few images).

It's RF editorial so the same release you always use should cover it.

I've never been able to find an editorial release, and I've asked at least three times in the past for a link to one (though for RM).

They say, "� In most places police and emergency crews will require that photographers have press accreditation to shoot accident scenes or similar sites. You must show us that you have the necessary permission to upload any images of this kind of thing."
This is not a requirement in the UK, certainly not in Scotland. Will the inspectors know which countries need this and which don't?

I see they are requiring releases signed by parents for images of minors. I wonder if there will be an 'editorial-use-only' release for that purpose.

Quote from: sponner on December 13, 2010, 08:03

I understand that I think.

What about using the isolated coke bottel while writing a factual article in a newspaper about coca cola. Would that be ok in the same way that editorial photo's of people are ok without releases?

Maybe, and it'll be different in different countries, but you'd have to ask why someone would pay for such a photo when they could probably get them for free from the product's HQ (though maybe not if it was to illustrate a bad true story about the product).
Same goes, unfortunately for many 'travel hotspots'. So much so that when my friend was planning a trip to New Zealand, she saw the same three pics in eight different brochures - all from the NZ tourist board or equivalent.
Added: the new announcement from iStock seems to trump Sean's post, as far as iStock is concerned:
"� Products
It's true: that isolated on white picture of your Fender Telecaster is now acceptable on iStock. We will be accepting all kinds of product shots."

I guess I'll give up because any search will find any of the words someone asks for and the words that someon has included in their keywords. Complaining that a search finds things that are there, and trying to explain it, is getting frustrating.

I understand the system, you don't need to explain it.
Understanding it doesn't mean I have to like it.
As Leyden is a valid alternative spelling of the Dutch town Leiden (both are used in the town itself), my pseudo sometimes gives false findings for searches for that town. Maybe I should scan and upload some of my old slides from there and give myself a double whammy!
I'm sure it must be really annoying for people genuinely searching. And what if your surname was Brown, Gray, Black or White, all of which are common enough? Why should you be almost-forced to use a pseudo other than your own name, unless you choose to do so.
If buyers want to instigate a search on a contributer, instigate the search properly, by giving a field where you can specify a pseudo, and that info is taken only from the pseudo field. Otherwise, a pseudo name shouldn't come into a search.
Also, if they want a search on ethnicity, why not have a field for that in the keywords section which the contributer can tick if appropriate, and avoid adjectives which are also ethnicities making a file show up in the ethnicity field?
There are easy ways around all of these issues, which should have been built in from the outset. But I know that the more files are in, the more contributors will hate having to change things. I was really lucky to start at iStock after they had introduced the CV, and remember the complaints from those who had big ports even back then.
But it should be all about giving the buyers the cleanest possible search result. I know by the search results I get, they're not always getting that. And I look at them all to see if I could do better, and usually, I can't. The keywords I have that led to the search are actually needed for the image.
Etc etc etc.
Another illustration: noticing that iStock issue of 'white rose' leading to pics of 'white rose potato' (as well as white roses), I searched on Alamy, DT and SS. They didn't feature the potato, but they did feature bottles or glasses of wine, presumably because they were keyworded either white, rose, red wine or wine, white rose red. Which comes from not having a CV whereby you could keyword 'white wine' 'rose wine' and 'red wine'.
I'm rambling and it's bedtime.
Slainte mhath, all.

Hey, back on topic for a minute:
Has anyone noticed an increase in Vetta sales this week?

Quote from: adijr on December 11, 2010, 15:31

Quote from: sjlocke on December 11, 2010, 11:24

Quote from: gostwyck on December 10, 2010, 18:38

It might take another year or two but I reckon SS will eventually emerge as the dominant microstock agency. Who do you trust the most to win out in the end __ Jon Oringer, serial entrepreneur and founder of SS, or Kelly Thompson, COO of an H&F subsidiary?

Color me unexcited at the thought of a subscription model dominating the market.

I'm mostly an outside viewer in this circuit, but here's my opinion of istock's most worrisome trend: http://siteanalytics.compete.com/istockphoto.com+shutterstock.com/#
Of course the price model is different and so on, but if that trend continues for a long time, almost none of the details will matter. In the end, I think these statistics will dominate any discussion about current details.

Anyway, carry on...

This is the SiteAnalytics graph referenced above:


Someone will need to come in and interpret the figures, but here are Alexa stats for iStock, FT, DT and SS for the past six months:

Worryingly, there's no evidence on either graph of "half of the year's sales being made in the final four months", as intimated by KKT in that fateful announcemant.

Also, if you manage to come up with a niche that few to none have discovered, that is the key to initial success. 

Provided it's one that iStock buyers want to buy (and preferably other contributers can't easily copy).
I can assure you it's no good having the only photos for a particular keyword if no buyers are interested. Sometimes niche images need niche outlets.

Large market in the U.S. for this type of run and gun family photos. Income levels for people using this service is between 20,000-30,000 US. Yep photographer is a Walmart/ Sears employee with little to no photo skills other then 1-2 hours of training on how the company does business. I've seen in some places where the camera was bolted to the floor!! Sit the Kid down, turn him to the left, say cheeses, hit the shutter, sell them a package for 29,95US, done next!

OK, fair enough, your area is totally different from mine. My camera club decided that they were going to try to sell photos of that nature (studio already set up, quick hair comb and primp, shoot and out - one pic �5) at a craft fair a couple of weeks ago. Not a great success - the only people who 'bought' were friends/family of club members, who sort-of 'couldn't say no'. We probably needed some 'hard sellers' pulling in the punters. The general response was along the lines of, "I've got a camera, why would I pay �5?", which is what I'd have expected. Generally there is almost no market for family photographers around here except for weddings and graduations; I hear the latter is falling too, as people just photograph each other at the graduation ceremony.